This study is associated with a home nurse visitation program that first began with 400 socially disadvantaged pregnant women between the years of 1977 and 1980 in an upstate New York semi-rural county. Participants in the original study were randomly assigned to participate in the home nurse visitation program or receive comparison services from pregnancy until the child's second birthday. Participants assigned to receive comparison services were provided with free transportation for prenatal and child care, as well as sensory and developmental screening for the child. Participants assigned to the home nurse visitation program were visited at home by a nurse 9 times during pregnancy and 23 times during the child's first 2 years of life. A follow-up study concluded that the home nurse visitation program reduced the number subsequent pregnancies, use of welfare, child abuse and neglect, and criminal behavior on the part of the socially disadvantaged mothers for up to 15 years after the birth of their first child.